day one...the trip's begun

So we're in the middle of Virginia in a Holiday Inn that, as we just discovered, minutes before nigh night time for our little one, doesn't have room darkening curtains! What kind of hotel doesn't have room darkening curtains?!?! It looked like it did--they're hanging at the sides of the window and look like they close, but when we tried to close them to darken the room, they didn't move--they were just hanging there and didn't stretch any further. So I pulled them so they were touching each other and I tried to think of something to clip them together as far up as they would go. I so wished I had brought a clothes pin! But then I thought of the hangers they provide in the room which have clips on them for hanging pants. It worked....sort of. We were able to clip them about 2/3 of the way up, so it's darker in here...just not as dark as you would like when your child is trying to go to sleep in a new environment. She's in the corner in the pack and play with the soft chair pushed against one side to block her vision of the rest of the room and a towel hung on the other side to block that view. She thought it was great fun to try and stand up and see Mommy, who was across the room. She got in trouble after the second time of trying that, but I then moved to the floor on the other side of the bed so she couldn't see me in case she did try and stand up again (thankfully, she didn't). I laid there and read with a flashlight for awhile. My husband was at the desk on this computer, blocked by the chair so she couldn't see him. We heard her moving around for about 10 minutes or so, but then she gave up and went to sleep. I was able to come out of hiding and now we're free to move about the room (in semi darkness--it's still light outside and it's coming in the top of the windows).

I write all of that just because it's so interesting the things you don't anticipate when you're traveling with a small child.

But until this little issue, the day went GREAT!!! This morning she was so excited to leave, she could hardly stand it. She kept saying, "Tip! (trip), "beach! simmum! (swimming)" We left at 7:55 this morning. She couldn't have been better in the car for the next seven hours. We drove three hours (she played for the first hour and then watched a video) and then stopped for an early lunch. She happily played with the rocks she found near our picnic table and burned off some energy. We got back in the car and I turned on the remainder of the video, but she fell asleep before it was done. I happened to look back and her blanket was over her head and she was passed out. She slept for the next hour and a half. Once she woke up we stopped to fill up with gas (she was in a good mood and didn't even need to get out--it was 100 degrees or we would've gotten her out anyway) and then drove the rest of our way to the hotel. Seven hours exactly after we left, we arrived.

She's had a great time exploring the hotel room and we went swimming in the indoor/outdoor pool (it's connected with these doors that open and close). She wasn't too sure about the pool, though. She hasn't been swimming since last summer, so I'm sure it felt like a whole new concept to her. She clung to us for dear life. She got more relaxed as time went on, but she was still happy to get out and just sit on the step and kick her feet. Hopefully as the week goes on and we're in the pool every day, she'll come to enjoy it more.

I forgot to bring the card reader, so I won't be able to hook it up to the computer and download my pictures while we're gone.

Some tidbits from the day:

-she loved the mountains! We pointed them out to her after she woke up as we were driving through them and from then on she kept saying, "More mintins?" if she couldn't see them.

-we went to Cracker Barrel for dinner (we never go there in real life, but it just seems like a vacation thing to do, doesn't it?). They have that little peg game at the tables. It entertained her the entire time until our meal came to take the pegs out, line them up on the table, have me count them each time she laid a new one down, and then to put them all back again. It took a lot of concentration and dexterity on her part to get them back in the holes, but she did it over and over. I told my husband we need to buy her one of those--I've never seen her concentrate so hard at something!

-she can crawl in and out of the bathtub by herself in this hotel room. It was fine until I gave her a bath, and after the bath (and after I had drained the water, thankfully) she crawled back into the tub with her clean, dry PJs on and got wet from the remains of her bath water! It's amazing the ways she finds to get herself into trouble!

Well, this is much longer than I thought it would be, but I guess when you're stuck in a semi dark hotel room with a sleeping daughter, there's not much else to do! (My husband has even gone to sleep already as I've been typing, and it's only 8:08!) Here's hoping she sleeps well tonight (she was up several times last night....and I thought we were past that!) and has another good car riding day tomorrow. We have to drive almost just as far tomorrow, but not quite.